The End Times

The Wii2 rumors are getting pretty dense up in this piece. Microsoft proved that you can get pretty far dropping a new platform before everyone else is ready, to the extent that if you can do it, you should. We’ve aggregated the most far-out content from blogs, newswebs, and dotcoms, boiling out the excess moisture until all that’s left is a kind of dense cake.

I’m incredibly curious about the Steam integration on the PS3 - not the particulars of it (it’s Steam on the PS3) but whether or not this is something people want. People use platforms and like platforms, and they play games where they like to play them. How often do they resent the yawning gulfs between them? Is this like creating a vegan menu for lions?

I explained the functionality to Gabriel, who reclined in his customary fashion, entirely unimpressed, and quite possibly asleep. He didn’t even know who he would play with on the PC should he choose to purchase the game on the PS3, when the whole point of the conversation was that he could play with me. You will either understand completely or not at all: if I can play a game on the PC, I will. This thing is a Goddamned monster, a nightmare horse always pawing its burning hooves at the dirt. It must feed! etc. Because we live in the actual universe, there are sometimes caveats:

1. My friends occasionally choose my platform for me. 2. If the Digital Rights Management is exceptionally fruity, I may opt for a console version. 3. If it’s not day and date.

It’s my plan to play Portal 2 co-op with a friend, that is to say a true friend, who is playing on the PS3. I want to see it all: specifically, I want to see the fruition of the sundered Games For Windows Live dream. Steam exists parallel to the PSN in this manifestation, and it replicates for free the Playstation Plus cloud saving. Why are they allowing this? Why is this not something people are talking about? OUtside of, like, videogames, this is the most fascinating thing happening in the industry.

I’m a little afraid that Section 8: Prejudice is going to get left out in the cold, with its mere guns and opposed to quantum holes; I saw it at PAX and assumed it was a full retail product, a followup to the excellent, borderline shocking Section 8. It was only a couple days ago that I started to understand it was a game you could download for fifteen fucking dollars, which is nutballs. This is the second under-appreciated title I’ve seen shoot for a second life as a purely digital good, and I hope this scheme takes off. I want to believe there’s such a thing as a second chance.